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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Governor tells grads about her former closeted life ... Lane County judge addresses concerns about 30-day sentence for dog-beater ... Unions submit signatures for Oregon corporate tax hike proposal ... Governor tells grads about her former closeted life ... Lane County judge addresses concerns about 30-day sentence for dog-beater ... Unions submit signatures for Oregon corporate tax hike proposal ... FISHING REPORT Fishing Report: Friday, May 20 Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted May. 20, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted May. 20, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: After a lake-like ocean last weekend, ocean anglers will see some bumpier water through the weekend, but it'll be doable for those with fair sea legs. Today's forecast calls for 10-knot winds and seven-foot wells, followed Saturday by 10-knot winds and six-foot swells. Sunday looks best with five-knot winds and five-foot swells. No advisories are forecast off Oregon this weekend, but expect rain. Limits of lings and rockfish are still coming in daily from Coos Bay, Brookings and Gold Beach thanks to good seas, though the lingcod bite has slowed a hair from the awesome bite of late April. The ling limit is two, and jigging just off kelp beds is very good. Anglers can keep up to one canary rockfish as part of the seven-fish bottomfish aggregate limit, but anglers should release canaries to ensure the quota is not filled, which could close the bottomfishing season. The halibut season out of Brookings is open south of Humbug Mountain, and while effort so far has been light, a few fish have come back to the dock. Look for some early action north of Brookings in waters close to 200 feet. The ocean and bays are open to crabbing coastwide, but ocean crabbing has been slow. Razor clamming is closed south of Yahats because of domoic acid levels, while bay clams and butter clams are available coastwide. Mussels can be taken only south of Cascade Head now. Before digging, check the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474. LAKE OUTLOOK AGATE: The lake is dropping slowly and was listed Thursday at 97 percent full. Fishing is fair for a mix of bass, crappie and perch. No trout stockings are planned this year. Most of the boat action has been high up in the reservoir around submerged willows, especially on cloudy days. No gas motors are allowed. APPLEGATE: Fishing is good to very good for a mix of recently stocked, legal-sized rainbow trout and holdover trout running 16-plus inches. Next week the lake is scheduled to get 8,000 more legal-sized trout. All the boat ramps are open and operational. Trollers and still-fishers off the bank high up in the reservoir are doing well. Bank anglers using worms under bobbers in the Seattle Bar area are seeing consistent action, but mostly for smaller rainbows. The lake is a half-foot from full and holding as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases a little more than 400 cfs of water, which is a hair under the inflow. Trolling for trout is always a good choice with Wedding Ring lures spiced with a piece of worm. Watch for floating debris. DIAMOND: The lake is warming, and fishing is improving almost daily, with PowerBait and worms out-fishing trolling. The rainbows are spread out, with the shrimp beds producing in the morning, and the lake's south end is also good. Another 300,000 fingerlings are scheduled for stocking early next month. Mornings are more productive but fishing has been decent all day during cloudy days. EMIGRANT: The lake dropped a hair this past week and was 97 percent full Thursday. The 1,000 legal-sized trout stocked there three weeks ago have started to disperse. But the cove off the ramp is the best bet for trout. Bass are starting to bite thanks to warming water. Fish crankbaits, plastic worms or grubs very slowly around structure on cloudy days. Look for an improved bite next week after another round of warm afternoons this weekend. FISH: The lake is still rising and was up to 72 percent full Thursday. Another 3,725 legal-sized trout and 425 pounders were stocked two weeks ago, and fishing has been best near the marina and the Forest Service boat ramp. Fish PowerBait for a mix of holdover rainbows, landlocked chinook and tiger trout, which must be released unharmed. Stick close to shore where the water is warmer. HOWARD PRAIRIE: The lake is fishing well for anchored boats fishing rainbow or chartreuse PowerBait off the bottom near shore. Trolling has been a bit slow. Lots of holdover trout in the 16- to 19-inch range are getting caught, and two weeks ago they were joined by another 5,725 legal-sized trout and 400 trophy trout. That has jump-started an already good fishery. The lake is holding steady at 71 percent full. HYATT: The lake is open, the Bureau of Land Management boat ramps on the lake's southwest side are open, and trout and bass fishing has improved. The lake got its first 6,000 legals and 400 trophy trout two weeks ago at the BLM boat ramp. The lake was holding steady at 75 percent full. LOST CREEK: The lake is holding steady at six inches from full and likely will stay there, because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to release inflows and keep the lake this way. Fishing is good for the 10,000 recently stocked legal-sized trout and 800 trophy-sized rainbows stocked there last month. Another 25,000 legal-sized rainbows and 1,075 pound-sized rainbows were released last week, and that should keep trollers and bank anglers busy. Fishing is also good with worms in the area where the Rogue flows into the lake above Peyton Bridge in the no-wake zone. Trollers should start with green Wedding Ring lures with a piece of worm. Landlocked salmon have been holding deeper than the trout. LAKE OF THE WOODS: The lake got 1,000 trophy trout two weeks ago, and fishing for them is good with worms under bobbers and PowerBait off the bottom near the resort. WILLOW: Trout fishing is improving and will get better next week with the release of another 3,225 legal-sized rainbows and 425 pounders. Most of this weekend's catches will be around the county ramp where the stocking truck stopped. The lake is almost full. EXPO: The pond near the outdoor stage got 1,500 legal-sized trout in late April, and fishing for them remains good with worms under bobbers, PowerBait and small spoons slowly retrieved. That's it for stocking this year, as the water will continue to warm. RIVER OUTLOOK ROGUE: Early spring chinook fishing continues to be somewhat slow, particularly for hatchery springers in the upper Rogue, while the middle Rogue is still being ignored by anglers, and action has really fallen off in the lower Rogue for both bankies and boat anglers, where a huge ball of bait fish off the mouth likely has slowed springers' entry into freshwater. That keeps the upper Rogue as not only the best bet but perhaps the only real bet right now for spring chinook, as anglers are getting anxious to see whether the run is just late or just pretty bad. In the upper Rogue, the spring chinook bite for driftboaters has been decent this week thanks to good water conditions, some cloudy skies and slightly improved fish numbers. Some boat anglers are using Mag Lip 3.5 lures with pink and chartreuse on them, while others are back-bouncing roe and sandshrimp combinations. Live sandshrimp are best. The best action is in migration lanes on overcast days. Focus on six to eight feet of water on the inside turns of gravel bars. As the water drops, it can be best to stay in a productive migration lane and wait for the chinook to come to you. A few winter steelhead are still showing up in the daily catch, but most are dark or already spawned out. River-wide only fin-clipped steelhead can be kept for the rest of 2016. Also, all wild spring chinook must be released now river-wide. Outflows from Lost Creek dam will vary slightly each day as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers passes inflow now that the lake is six inches from full. That is this year's target. Flows Thursday afternoon at Dodge Bridge were down to just over 2,600 cfs. Another 188 spring chinook reached the Cole Rivers Hatchery collection pond Tuesday, upping the take so far to 425 springers. That's slightly less than half of the 10-year average, which was skewed by a huge early return last year during drought conditions. Hatchery fish are underachieving in volume so far, but similar water conditions in 2011 created a late return, and that has anglers staying positive. In the lower Rogue, plunkers and boat anglers are getting in front of very few springers, with a handful taken daily. That's slow, particularly for what should be the back half of the peak catch there. Boat anglers are using anchovies with spinner blades, Kwikfish and MagLip lures fished on gravel beds. Bank anglers have gone to smaller Spin-Glo's and are moving farther off the bank into seven feet of water. Flows at Agness were dropping and were at 3,943 cfs Thursday. A slight uptick is forecast thanks to light weekend rains. APPLEGATE: The river reopens to trout fishing Sunday. All wild trout must be released unharmed. No fin-clipped rainbows stocked here. CHETCO: The river reopens to trout fishing Sunday, and look for some sea-run cutthroat in tidewater. MailTribune.com Writer Posted May. 20, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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